is this a severe allergic reaction ????? kinda urgent

[hermykne]

dd has had the most awful neck to ankle rash outbreak today from 4pm, like welts, on her face - thats died down, but elsewhere its a mix of welts and hives, she hasnt had anything diff to eat to day, milk would affect her but nothing like this.
i have put calamine lotion on her , she is scratching like mad, now asleep but fretful.

absolutely useless doc on call, said take to a & e, cant ds in bed and dh away.

any help appreciated
the rash is red shes 3 1/2

Hermykne - DD2 had a similar episode about 2.5 weeks ago when GP advised either a reaction to virus or allergy. She then had the same again on Wednesday but this time her throat was affected and her face & limbs were badly swolled. She got some steriods at Hospital and within a short time was much, much better.

However Consultant advised again that could be her reaction to a virus and in fact that is not unusual in children under 5 at all. We have a futher appointment with the Consultant in 6 weeks so we can only wait and see.

Wedensday's attack has cleared up wonderfully bytoday and followed the same pattern as before with eruptions over differnt parts of her body on different days - i.e. face/toroso Wednesday, groin/thighs Thursday etc. It does all clear up well. She might be left with a wee bit bruising for a day or two on any really severly affected areas. Piriton really helped with the itching.

chandra do u think tiny amts are responsible for such a reaction - i only ask as i havent a clue.

there were nut traces in the muffin, checked he ingredient lasbel today in the shop.
but she ahs eaten other things where the label says "nuts.....etc"

gomez thats interesting about your lo.
i will investigate further with my own doc

I can't say for sure but keep an eye open just in case. I have read an article some time ago which mentioned skin contact with nuts as the trigger from which a more serious nut allergy developed. Obviously, this does not apply for every single case but, if there were no significant changes on what she ate that day, what she did but the only new factor is playing with almonds it may be the case.

About the muffin that may have contained traces of nuts, I would dsay that if your DD has not reacted before to other products with traces of nuts (and there are many products that may have them), it is unlikely to be. DS is allergic to nuts but is fine with traces of them, I believe the people who react to traces are only those who are extremely sensitive, or better said, those who ave the worst allergy.

Hausfrau, I think there have been many threads in the past about ecover causing problems to people with eczema

let me shed a little light on the 'traces' or 'may contains ' issue.
An allergic person can not use past non reactions to eating food with a may contain label as an indication of a so called 'mild' allergy.

This is something that requires medical advice.

Food with the may contain label is put there by manufactures for a wide varity of reasons, shared wrapping machines, second hand equipment for eg.
But also , for a higher chance of a piece of nut ending up in a product.
Cakes, bissuits , cereal and confectionary are all high risk.
Chocolate is high risk because of something called 'rework chocolate' . Chocolate is pushed through to pick up nut peices and traces and added back to the pot before new bars are made.
A good eg of this is Mars bars, which have a 'may contain' warning. But share a line with snicker bars.

As for reactions, lots of other physical elements must be in place for a person to go in to full blown anaphylaxis, certainly the amount injested does play a part. But if a person was feeling the effects of this list below , a more severe reaction is possible.
exercise, stress, booze, poorly managed asthma or infection, such as cold or flu, period time for a woman can influence outcome.
Environmental allergies making an impact on body system. So time of year and exposure of other allergens can tip the balance.

These are the elements that turn a accidental reaction in to a full blown anaphylaxis.
In some cases traces on fingers rubbed in to eyes, can also cause the allergen to enter the body and cause a reaction.
Skin contact is for many a mild, if uncomfortable experience, there are of course a rare few that do go in to a more severe reaction , allergy is very idividual.
And by its very nature unpredictable.
Strict avoidance is the only way .

I have heard peanut allergy as being discribed as being like pregancy, either your are pregnant or you are not.
I think its a good discription.

Williamsmummy, I wish the paediatric allergician as well as the other two allergists we have seen in the past had known that. The three of them told me that if he had been fine with traces that I shouldn't worry. He has had a few reactions to nuts/peanuts, hence he his RAST & ELISA tests (which showed him as allergic to nuts and many other things), however, he has never reacted to a product that only showed a "may contain traces of nuts" label.

Puzzling allergies!
Now, I know this may change in the future.

well the answer maybe olives - dd loves them
and would o/d on them! i never thought twice about them, and it does make sense now.

they both flared up on the face and enck tonight but i got hte anti histamine into them pretty quickyl and it worked so i am assuming its them.
so i ll eliminate for the next week, she'd eat them every 2 days or so, and see what happens

Eliminate them for a bit longer (at least a month) and then try again. Try also to eliminte olive oil during the same time to make it easier to spot a change (if there is one)

Good luck

hermykne ...
My DD had a very similar reaction to yours last year and it was after she was given amoxycillin ... so she is not allowed penicillin now ....
I have some photos of her rash if you want to compare ... CAT me and I will email you a couple though if you like ...
g x

You should ask GP for allergy testing right away. Don't take No for an answer. Some people are so sensitive to an allergen that they will react if in the same room. This is why airlines will not allow peanuts if an allergy sufferer is on the plane.

My DS was about 1 when he reacted badly to humous and after allergy testing we found he was seriously allergic to Eggs, Cow's milk, chick peas, Seasame Seeds ans cheese. We had been avoiding these things coincidentaly as he had really bad eczema but we didn't know how seriously allergic he was until the testng and food challenges. Good luck. You should probably get a prescription for an Epipen as well as having Piriton.

anniemac .... I think the rash came almost immediately but was a rash rather than welts ... The next day each spot had grown into a welt (or hive) and more spots came. As the welts calmed down the new spots developed into welts ... it was really odd and she looked terrible. The doctor stopped the penicillin and the rash went away as quickly as it came ...

ghosty thanks a million i will CAT u, i think i have to pay for CAT service now under new rules so i'll do that and then email u.

i did get veg oil too to eliminate o/oil too.

ta

anniemac, my ds took penicillin hives appeared after a couple of days, i do remember it was day 3 before i spoke to a doc and she said to stop immediately

p.s it was also only on his thighs back and front and side of face and neck

dd had a reaction to something a while back that looked like welts and bruising. It disappeared from one part of her body and moved to another. I thought the childminder had been beating her up!! Took her to the hospital and he said it was a mild reaction to something. She had had peanut butter that day and the doctor said it was probably that, but she had been having peanut butter for weeks with no reaction. She had been ill prior to this with a bad cold and thrush so was generally run down and had been on antibiotics. He said because her immune system was low that it caused a mild reaction where it normally wouldn't have. But I'm very confused about the whole thing. I went to see a homeopath who said that the antibiotics probably caused the thrush and she gave me some of the 'good bacteria' in powder form to help get the balance right in her tummy after the antibiotics and also some remedies to clear the antibiotics out of her system. You just don't know what to do for the best and there is so much conflicting info out there!

Forgot to ask about ECOVER washing powder. Did I read somewhere that it can agrevate excama? My daughter has scratched what was a little dry patch of excema. It bacame infected and she had spots all over her back. She had antibiotic to clear the infection but she scratched it again just as it was clearing up and it flared up again. I don't want her to be on antibiotics constantly so have turned to a homeopath again. She has given me creams, remedies and a bottle essential fatty acids but only been doing it for a couple of days so no visible results yet, except that dd has stopped scratching and the cream smells divine!! Sorry to go on, what I really wanted to clear up is if people think that Ecover is bad for excema and what do you suggest. I live in the UK.

My ds's excema gets worse with ecover washing powder (and fairy). We use persil non-bio tablets (we only put one in so it's half strength) which I think a lot of excema families use.
I am continually annoyed by my dMIL who keeps taking ds's dirty clothes and washing them at her house in Ecover! - I know she's trying to be helpful, but I have to wash it all again twice in persil!
I think that Ecover is fragranced with Lavender?, and my sister is sensitive to lavender so I wondered if that was the problem.

Thanks blue bear. I may try Surcare as I've read a few posts on that.

I hope dd is not allergic to lavender as homeopath has just prescrbed cream containing lavender!!